She remembered her promise to The Man Upstairs.
After all, she didn’t say when she would start living a righteous life; she’d said she would, which, of course, meant sometime in the near distant future.
Lester entered the room carrying an antique silver breakfast tray. Toast, sausage, scrambled eggs and orange juice.
“Are you hungry?” Lester asked. She nodded and Lester placed the tray on the bed. “Good. I’ve cooked a little something to build up your strength.” She reached for the fork and Lester playfully slapped her hand. “No, I’ll feed you.”
What on earth, Ruth Ann wondered, made me think I could live without this man? So what the skin around his mouth looked like the onset of vitiligo. The man loved her. She could search the world and never again find a man who truly loved her as Lester did.
Lester fed her small bits of runny eggs, half-cooked sausage and burnt toast and waited patiently as she chewed.
“I need to get out of this bed,” Ruth Ann said between bites. “I need to get up and clean this house.”
“No way, honey. The doctor said you need your rest.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Let me take care of you.”
“Lester, you have to go to work.”
“I’ve got it covered. Valerie is coming over when I go to work this evening. She promised me she’ll keep an eye on you when I’m gone.”
“What!” Ruth Ann shouted, bits of eggs flying out of her mouth. “Valerie! Lester, you know how your sister feels about me. I don’t want her in my house! You know I don’t!”
“Honey, she’s not moving in. She’ll look on you while I’m at work.”
“Hmmph! She’ll come in here and press a pillow over my head. You tell her keep her malnourished, crack- smoking ass away from me.”
“We’ll see,” and stuck a spoonful of eggs in her mouth before she could respond.
Ruth Ann chewed quickly and said, “I don’t want her in my house, Lester. I’m sick. I shouldn’t be forced to deal with someone I can’t stand. Around you she pretends she likes me—you and I both know she does not. I don’t want her in my house, Lester. I mean it!”
“I’ll call her and tell her not to come.” He picked up the tray and started out. “I guess you don’t want my mother here, either. She’s on her way right now.”
“What! Bebe? In my house?”
“Yes,” Lester said.
“The same Bebe who stood up in church and called me a whore on Easter Sunday? You’re telling me she’s coming to my house! You forgot what happened the last time she was here? She and I got into a fight, the state police came out and we paid a plumber five hundred dollars to unclog her cheap wig out of the septic tank. Hello? Yo momma psychodrama escaped your memory?”
“Ruthie, honey, she’s concerned, willing to lend a hand.”
“Ha! Please! She thinks I’m suffering, wants to hear me wailing.”
“A mean thing to say, Ruthie. I need someone to watch you while I step out for a few minutes.”
“I can look after myself. I don’t need a gap-toothed buzzard gawking at me, hoping I croak. Where are you trying to run off while I’m here dying?”
“Sheriff Bledsoe requested I come in for a lie-detector test.” Ruth Ann’s jaw dropped. “Momma said she’d be glad to watch you while I’m gone. What happened between you and her was three years ago. She’s not thinking about it. You oughta give her a chance, Ruthie. Let bygones be bygones.”
“You… you talked to Sheriff Bledsoe? You and he talked? About what? What did he say?”
“I didn’t talk to him. Shirley told me he requested everyone at the hospital come in this weekend and take a lie-detector test. I figured to go get it over with so I can come back and look after you.”
“Lester, you weren’t there… at the barbecue. You weren’t in any way connected to what happened.”
“I know that and you know that. Sheriff Bledsoe, apparently, does not. I guess he’s trying to cover all the bases.”
“Don’t go! I mean, call him and tell him you can’t make it.”
“It’s not a problem. I don’t go he’ll think I have something to hide.”
Ruth Ann threw the sheet back and hopped out of bed. “I’m going with you. We’ll both go.”
“No, honey. Lie down. The doctor said you need to rest a few days. What are you doing?”
Ruth Ann ignored him and stepped to the closet. “Fuck that! I’m going!” She angrily slid several dresses back and forth on the rod. “I’m not sitting in bed wondering what’s going on. I need to be there.”
“Why? Why do you need to be there?”
A good question, to which she didn’t have a good answer.
“B-be-because I’m your wife. It’s not fair. It’s not fair at all, Lester. You weren’t at the barbecue… and… and you had nothing whatsoever to do with my father’s death… and I don’t appreciate Sheriff Bledsoe calling you in and grilling you over something you know nothing about. I don’t appreciate it one bit. It ain’t fair, Lester.”
She snatched an orange pullover sweater from a hanger—the one Bebe had given her last Christmas, the one she’d never worn—and flung it to the floor. “It’s not fair, Lester!” she cried, stomping on it. “It’s not fair!”
Lester crossed to her and hugged her. “Relax. It’s all right. If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll call Sheriff Bledsoe and tell him I can’t make it till you’re fully recuperated.”
“May I call him for you?”
“Sure, why not?”
Ruth Ann smiled and allowed Lester to guide her back to the bed.
“Honey,” Lester said, “you need to relax.” He spread the sheet over her. “Really. You can’t go getting yourself worked up.” The doorbell rang. “That’s probably Momma.”
“I’m not up for company.”
“I’ll handle it. You just get some rest.”
When he was halfway out the door, Ruth Ann said, “One more thing, Lester, before you go.”
“Yes.”
“Come closer.” He moved to the bed. “Closer.” Ruth Ann rose up and kissed him, long and hard.
“Momma?” Lester said.
Ruth Ann wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again. “She can wait… can’t she?”
“But…” kissing her neck, “she knows… we’re home.” He climbed into the bed beside her.
“Wait, Lester. You’re on top of Teddy.”
Lester got up and put the bear on the table next to the bed.
“Make sure his back is turned,” Ruth Ann said. The doorbell rang again… and again.
“I better answer that.”
“Hold me for a second, Lester.”
He got back into bed and immediately resumed kissing her neck.
“Ruthie… Ruthie… Oh, honey… I love you so much.” He kissed her chin… her nose… her eyes, tightly closed. “Oh baby! Ruthie… oh Ruthie… oh baby!”
His facial skin was coarse, scraping her face, the foul-smelling scent of Magic Shave abused her nostrils.
Again the doorbell rang, and Ruth Ann wondered when the old girl would give up and go home. Lester nibbled on her breast through her Bugs Bunny pajama top.
“I love you so much, Ruthie,” Lester said. “Baby, I want you so bad.”
He unbuttoned the top button and started biting her breast. She could feel his erection pressing against her kneecap. She opened her eyes… Lester’s afro came into view first, and then he turned his head and she saw his mouth clamped onto her breast.
“Oh God,” she groaned and closed her eyes again.
“Ruthie… Ruthie!”
She couldn’t stop him now; she’d let him go too far. A hand squeezed her buttocks, moved along her waist and palmed her pubic.
